Transition Update

Like ducks swimming across a still pond, committee members are furiously busy with hidden activity as we move towards transition.

We are glad to report that the society members of Tasmania and Western Australia have held their second votes on the IPEd transition plan, and approved it. So from 1 July, IPEd will have six branches: New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia.

An IPEd subcommittee has been reviewing applications for three new part-time employees: an executive officer, finance officer and membership officer. Shortlists have been agreed upon, and the shortlisted candidates for executive officer have been interviewed. The shortlisted candidates for the other two positions will be interviewed over the next three weeks or so.

Another subcommittee has been developing an IPEd code of ethics, and policies for membership, expense and budgets.

The systems and records subcommittee has been working on the preparation of society membership and subscription data for import to the IPEd system, and also designing the IPEd register of freelance editors, which will be based on the great deal of work done by Anne Gugger and her colleagues in the Editors Victoria Freelance Affairs team. The changes needed for the IPEd and branch websites have been defined. The subcommittee has also been reviewing budget worksheets and guidelines developed by the transition technology manager (TTM). The TTM has been working on the configuration settings of the IPEd membership system (which uses the same software as Editors Victoria) and the IPEd accounts set-up, as well as setting up Google Apps, which will provide shared file storage, email and web forums for the council, branches and national staff.

The aim is that membership records from all participating societies will be imported into the membership system in the last week in June after they have been carefully reviewed. Then on 1 July, the changes to the IPEd and branch websites and the new IPEd membership system will go public, and the restructured IPEd will start its operation.